HANOVER, Germany -- Deutsche Messe's exhibition center in Hanover will get its own 5G campus network before the end of the year. This will create Europe's largest 5G exhibition center, equipped with the new, high-speed generation in mobile communications. In close partnership with Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Messe AG is gradually transforming the exhibition grounds into a highly innovative multifunctional campus.

Deutsche Telekom is ensuring comprehensive, high-performance 5G coverage over a total area of more than 1.4 million square meters. Telekom is implementing the campus network as a hybrid network. The fair ground thus has a private network that trade fairs and exhibitors can use for their applications. At the same time, visitors to the trade fairs have excellent coverage with the public 5G network covering the exhibition area.

One of The Largest 5G Campus Networks in Europe

With the 5G expansion, the Hanover site will also get one of the largest 5G campus networks in Europe in terms of area. In the first step, Deutsche Telekom is equipping five halls and the entire outdoor area, including adjacent parking lots, with 5G. Telekom will then supply all 30 halls and buildings on the exhibition grounds. The aim is to create a globally-unique test field for 5G, where technology leaders from a wide range of industries can test their use cases. Deutsche Messe and Deutsche Telekom are developing and marketing the joint 5G offering as partners.

"For Deutsche Messe, the early decision to have its own 5G campus network covering the entire exhibition center is a strategically important step. With the allocation of a private 5G license by the Federal Network Agency and Deutsche Telekom as a partner, we are strengthening our core and new business. We are thus offering exhibitors and guest organizers of all trade fairs in Hanover the opportunity to present their 5G-enabled products, solutions and applications live to an international audience," said Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Board of Management, Deutsche Messe AG. "With the 5G Campus network, Deutsche Telekom is opening up a unique opportunity for our exhibition center to become one of the largest private and self-contained 5G areas in Europe," adds Köckler.

"Deutsche Telekom is the driving force behind the 5G rollout in Germany – especially for business. With this high-speed 5G campus network, we are delivering a transparent test area for industry here in Hanover," says Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. "Digitization and innovation in Germany will benefit from our strong partnership with Messe AG."

Exhibition Ground Becomes an Innovation Campus

In the future, Deutsche Messe's 5G site will also offer comprehensive coverage with Telekom's public 5G network. Innovative and forward-looking applications will be researched, developed and tested here. This applies to products, solutions and applications across all industries.

Köckler: "We are thus changing from a mere organizer to an operator of a site for testing and demonstration purposes in high-tech environments. We are developing our exhibition center into a multifunctional innovation campus."

The Lower Saxony Ministry of Digitization is supporting the 5G expansion of the exhibition center with more than 2.8 million euros. Minister of Economics and Digitalization Dr. Bernd Althusmann: "Corona will lead to long-term changes in the trade-fair business, as well as other sectors of the economy. Deutsche Messe AG is consistently aligning itself for the future with the 5G Smart Venue strategy. We now have the opportunity to help shape this structural change and the accelerated digitalization it will bring." Lower Saxony has so far been a frontrunner in this respect. A total of eleven 5G projects in Lower Saxony have already received concept funding from the federal government. No other federal state can boast more awards in this area.

Lower Saxony is one of the only German states to develop a funding framework to support the establishment of research- and industry-related 5G campus networks. The state government's 5G strategy aims not only to support individual projects, such as Messe AG's, but to develop a state-wide 5G ecosystem.

Hagen Rickmann, Managing Director of the Business Customer segment at Telekom Deutschland adds: "5G will bring fundamental competitive advantages, especially for industry. Production and mobility will benefit just as much as applications for smart cities, logistics, or medical technology. The advantages of this future technology will become tangible at the Hanover exhibition center. And thus, tangible for visitors and customers."

The Campus Network in Detail

The largest 5G exhibition center in Europe is being implemented in Hanover with a hybrid network, the so-called "dual-slice" campus network. For this, 14 outdoor 5G antennas will be put into operation in the first step. In addition, more than 70 indoor antennas will illuminate the first 5 halls with 5G indoors as well.

The private part of the campus network will be implemented with frequencies in the 3.7 - 3.8 GHz range. Deutsche Messe has been allocated a corresponding license from the industrial spectrum by the German Federal Network Agency for this purpose. The part of the public network will be secured using Deutsche Telekom's own frequencies in the 3.6 GHz range. This means that a total of 190 MHz of bandwidth is available for the exhibition center.

A redundant mobile network ensures particularly high availability. It thus offers maximum reliability for the trade fair, exhibitors and visitors.

An edge computing platform processes incoming data in the shortest possible response time. It is integrated into the network architecture and processes the data directly on site. This ensures maximum data security and efficient data processing.